The Earthen Goblet - Harindranath Chatopadhyaya

 

The Earthen Goblet – Harindranath Chatophadyaya - reviewed by Anupama Gidakanda

Questions to ponder on: What does the title mean? What kind of goblet is he talking about? Was Chattopadhyaya writing to a native audience or like many colonial/postcolonial writers was he writing with a western audience in mind? 

O silent goblet red from head to heel,

How did you feel

When you were being twirled

Upon the Potter’s wheel

Before the Potter gave you to the world?

The poetic person addresses the goblet as “O silent goblet” and immediately offers it status far above ordinary goblets. The technique the writer is using is called apostrophe – the poetic persona is made to address an inanimate object directly. The poetic persona is treating the goblet as a sentient being with consciousness.

The poetic persona notes two qualities in the goblet: it is red and silent. The goblet is red because it made of baked clay. However, red is also the colour of life. Ironically, the goblet is an inanimate fixed thing. However, the clay from which it was created was both animate and plastic/flexible.

All inanimate things are silent. Therefore, when the poetic persona levels his question at the “silent goblet” there could be two reasons for that:

1.     He meant it to be purely a rhetorical question and did not expect an answer  (or)

2.     He wanted the goblet to break its silence and find its voice so that it that could express itself  

The poetic persona asks two questions:

1.     How did the goblet feel when it was twirled around on the potter’s wheel?

2.     How did the goblet feel when it was give to the world?

In this section, the poet is dealing with an act of creation. In this act, the substance (clay) that is being shaped into something else (the goblet) does not have any agency/power; therefore, it has no say in what is happening to it. It is interesting that the goblet is usually considered a feminine shape. It is the “Potter”, usually man, who decided what the lump of clay would be. This situation sums up any condition in which one party has all power in the world to decide the fate of another. In such situations, powerful people like the Potter considers the substance they work with to be without will, consciousness or the reasoning power, and therefore they exert their will, consciousness and the reasoning power in shaping it to something to their liking. Here, neither in the shaping or the presenting of the goblet does the Potter consult the clay or the goblet regarding its likes and dislikes. The act of creation is bewildering to the clay as indicated by the term “twirl”. It befalls on the poetic persona to ask those questions making him more sensitive of the two- the Potter and the poetic persona. What would have given him that sensitivity? In many cultures poets are said to be extra sensitive and divinely inspired. This gives the poet the power to see things overlooked by others.

‘I felt a conscious impulse in my clay

To break away

From the great Potter’s hand that burned so warm.

The poetic persona’s questions helps the goblet to find its voice. In a flashback the goblet narrates its life story. The goblet identifies itself as ‘I’ – indicating conscious fully formed personhood in the goblet. In contrast, the clay has only “conscious impulse”. The paradox indicated here is the shaping of the clay while restricting it and robbing it of its plasticity had given the goblet a personhood which the clay lacked. The cool clay impulsively tries to break away when it is touched by the warm hands of the Potter. It resist the shaping of it. Do you think the clay would have thought it was worthwhile undergoing the painful and bewildering process of the shaping of it into the goblet, had it known the outcome? No.      

I felt vast

Feeling of sorrow to be cast

Into my present form.

The third stanza begins in a positive note: the goblet says that it felt “vast”. This sense of positivity is immediately followed by an immense feeling of negativity. By juxtaposing those two ideas, the poet is suggesting the many binaries of life: hope and hopelessness, sadness and happiness, etc. Instead of feeling a sense of elation and accomplishment, the goblet or the consciousness in the goblet had felt a great sense of sorrow.  

‘Before that fatal hour

That saw me captive on the Potter’s wheel

And cast into this crimson goblet-sleep,

I used to feel

The fragrant friendship of a little flower

Whose root was in my bosom buried deep.

In the fourth stanza, the goblet, in a flashback, gives the reason for its sorrow and regret at being cast into a goblet. Being made into a goblet had put the clay into a “goblet-sleep”. In its clay form, it was awake and alive. The purpose of clay/soil is to provide a growth medium for plants, not to become a drinking vessel. By turning the clay into a goblet, the Potter had deprived not only the clay but also the plant: the Potter prevents the clay from performing one of its intended functions that gave it pleasure and He also robbed the plant on which the little flower grew a place to grow. We often assume that only higher beings are capable of friendship, etc., but the poet suggests that even clay and plants can have a friendship. Not only that, they can have a “fragrant friendship” – a friendship that is not based on reciprocity (giving and taking). For the clay, the fact that the flower is small does not make any difference.  Technically speaking, the poet uses inversion and alliteration. In using inversion, the poet privileges the tragedy – being cast into a goblet. When that is juxtaposed with the former pleasant experience of being friends with the little flower, reader feels the acute sense of sadness the goblet feels. This generates pathos in the mind of the reader.   

‘The Potter has drawn out the living breath of me

And given me a form which is the death of me.

My past unshapely natural state was best

With just one flower flaming through my breast.’

The last stanza is a lament. The goblets laments it present form. By giving it shape (and a personhood/voice) the Potter had taken the most important thing out of the clay – its’ breath and life. The clay in goblet form cannot give breath to little flowers and it is in a goblet-sleep. Instead of being a drinking vessel, something essentially empty and dead, it yearns to revert to its original form.

The poem has five stanzas. The poetic persona appears in only the first stanza. The rest is dedicated to give voice to the goblet.

This poem can be read at several levels:

·       As just a description of making of a goblet

·       At a connotative level, this is about how the powerless is being shaped into something else against their wishes by those with power

o   Capitalism and people

o   Urbanization and rural people

o   Colonialism and people of the colonies

o   A dominant philosophy/ political ideology/ religion and ‘primitive’ culture/ powerless group/ women/ poor people   

·       A metaphorical reading of the Creation Myth – man as the goblet and the Potter as God

Themes:

 

1.     Impact of human activities on nature – in the taking of the clay to form the goblet the plant on which the little flower was had to be destroyed

2.     Free will and divine design – clay wants to remain clay (free will) but the Potter wants to make a goblet out of it (divine design) – whether we like it or not we are a part of a grand design, the working of which we have very little control over. In the change we lose some and gain some: clay loses its breath and life but gains shape and personhood

3.     The role of the poet – the voice and conscience of those without voice. It is the poet who had identified the goblet had a story tell and had asked the magical question that gave it voice.

Questions

1.     Examine the significance of the poetic techniques used in the poem “The earthen Goblet”.

2.     ‘Through the voice of the goblet, Haindranath Chattopadhyaya explores how natural life is destroyed and shaped by external forces.’ Discuss this statement with reference to “The earthen Goblet”.

3.     Which significant realities of life does the poet in "The Earthen Goblet" wish to reveal to the reader? Present your views with reference to the text by Harindranath Chattopadyaya.

Realities of life presented by the poet
• Change is a significant reality of human life

* change is painstaking and unbearable
* deep attachments (which are difficult / painful to forget)
* disappointment / confusion / lifelessness"

* gives the implication as to how a person from a rural area, much attached to rural life is made to undergo change in modern society, with no choice (lump of clay turning into a goblet signifies a humble village boy changes into a modern emotionless man in the city)

 

In the poem, “The Earther goblet”, what is the attitude of the goblet towards the change it underwent on the potter’s wheel? What is the message the poet wants to convey?